Delivering Donations to the Displaced

Hot off the work bench, I literally only finished this piece minutes ago.  I’m really happy with it, but I am not sure about the name, I’m hoping something more eloquent will come to me…

It’s the latest in my community series and it is about my memory of the well worn path through our local evacuation centre during the floods.  Many, many locals who were not affected donated anything they could to those in our community who had lost so much.  It was such a help to me to be able to do something positive amongst so much devastation and I hope that in some small way it gave comfort and practical assistance to those in need.  

Every time I visited the evacuation centre the piles of donated goods was larger and not just piles of used things, but specially purchased items, the specific requirements that were called for, one day it was toiletries and baby goods another day it was, sheets and towels or cleaning gear and gum boots. It was uplifting to see the community reaching out to help those in need

In my painting the evacuee’s are represented by the scattered dots, the people I saw when visiting the evacuation centre where in shock, wandering, seemingly aimless and scattered around the grounds.  The ark of dots in the corner represents those on a mission to deliver goods and offer a hand in any way they could.   It still brings tears to my eyes to think about just how many people where at that evacuation centre and it was just one of many. 

Anyway I didn’t intend for this post to be sad, so to end on a more positive note here it is, my latest painting…

Delivering Donations to the Displaced

Kylie Marie Stevens

Encaustic on mounted linen

600 x 600mm

2011

What do you think?

A strange little job…

Today one of the jobs on my "to do list" is removing the wax residue on these little copper balls.

They will be part of my third attempt at the still in progress “Entwined in the Community” painting. The wax that is on them is left over from when they were imbedded in the first attempt.

I’m off to boil the jug to get them all cleaned up. What strange little jobs are you up to today?

Disaster in the studio…

While threading the twine through the copper balls late yesterday afternoon I bumped one – hard, I cracked the wax supporting it near the base which meant it was no longer embedded firmly.

I was furious with myself and walked away to calm down, when suddenly the solution for how to mend it came to me.  Wanting to get it sorted out straight away, I took a deep breath and headed back into the studio, I should have just stayed away…

Heating the substrate from below was a good idea, but it required more delicacy and patience than I had to give at the end of the day.  Now I have a smooth puddle in my lovely textureL.  

I don’t think it is reparable; I am going to try, this morning while I am feeling fresh, but I think I am going to have to end up melting the whole painting off and starting again.  It is one of the beauties of encaustics that I can do that, but it’s so sad as I really loved the texture in this piece and I was ready for it to be finished so I could move onto the next piece that is on my mind.  

I suppose these days happen to make us appreciate the days when everything goes right…

"Entwining"

Detail of “Entwined in the Community” in progress

Encaustic and copper on mounted linen

Today I hope to get the entwining part of my latest work “Entwined in the Community” done.  It will involve lots of carefully, but forcefully find paths through the copper balls for the needle and twine.  

Detail of “Entwined in the Community” in progress

Encaustic and copper on mounted linen

Time consuming and a little frustrating, but oh so satisfying as it the piece is so close to finished…

I wonder if anything simular is happening in other creative spaces across the globe…

It’s a bit like watching grass grow…

I’m spending a lot of time today waiting for copper to cool and wax to set. 

Detail of “Entwined in the Community” in progress

Encaustic and copper on mounted linen

Every time I paint a layer I have to fuse it (heat the surface with my heat gun) and in the process the copper wire balls heat up.  Then I have to wait for it to all cool down and set again so I can paint the next layer (the copper keeps it heat for quite a while – so it is making the process quite drawn out).  

If I moved onto the next layer before it was really cool and set I might dislodge the balls with my paint brush.  In reality there is so little to do until this piece is finished, but it is going to take some time and patients to get there.  I’m not very good at all this waiting business! 

Community Ties

My blogging space may have been quite slack lately, but my creative space is still full steam ahead.  I am madly in love with my latest painting.  It doesn’t always feel like this when I finish a piece, but this is the feeling I am always chasing.  Knowing that it can feel this good is what pushes me along through all of the hard work.

"Community Ties"

Kylie Marie Stevens

encaustic, copper and twine on canvas

450 x 550mm

2011

I am embarking on a new series exploring the concept of “Community", for me the copper balls represent the people within the community that are tied together with the twine that symbolises different strands or groups within our larger communities. 

Community Ties - detail

I’m hoping to do a piece soon on my involvement with the bloggy community, but I haven’t yet come up with a way to represent it.  What does community mean to you?  Do you feel a stronger connection with your physical/locality community or your online community?

I hope you are having a good Creative Space day… Pop on over here to join in the fun.